Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	council_n	judge_v	1,394	5	7.3227	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

erected Iustiniana prima to a new Patriarchate and indulged unto the same they are the words of his eleventh Novel the highest Priesthood the highest authority and ordained that that should have the place not onely Vicegerency but place of the Apostolical See so as it should be saith Nicephorus a Free Church and Head unto it self with full power c. what could be said more amply what more magnificently of Rome her self so likewise by the same Imperial Authority the very same Emperour Iustinian Novel 131. ch 1. restored the African Diocess to its Ancient Patriarchal Prerogative which the invasion of the Vandals had interrupted And so by his Imperial writ did hee constitute the Bishop of Carthage absolute Primate of whole Africk Lastly This is the very thing which in the last age the Emperour of Britain King Henry the eighth by the like right imitated in his Diocess viz. not by erecting it anew which yet in the case of Iustiniana prima Iustinian did but onely restoring the same Britannick Diocess unto the Ancient Liberty it enjoyed in the Primitive times of the Ancient Oecumenick Councils viz. the Nicene Constantinopolitane and Ephesine concerning which more hereafter And thus much more than needs of our first Position because that is as it were the foundation laid for the rest that follow The Second Position 1 The Britannick Church 2 as being alway placed without the Suburbicaries of the Italick Diocess 3 in the time of the Nicene Council was in no case subject to the Romane Patriarchate but enjoyed a Patriarchate of its own as to the substance of the thing so as did the other Churches placed in the rest of the free Diocesses The Structure or Proof TO the first wee must observe that the Britannick Diocess was one of the thirteen into which according to the computation of some the whole Roman Empire but the very Praefecture of Rome it self was anciently distributed We must also observe that the Britannick Diocess had been one of the six Diocesses of the Western Empire among which it appears to have excelled out of Tacitus Spartian and the other more famous Roman Historians To the second wee must mark that by the Nicene Council every Province had its Metropolitick bounds set Certain it is I say that therein were fixed the Ecclesiastick limits to the three chief Metropolitanes that is to the Roman Alexandrian and Antiochian the right alwaies of the other Provinces being preserved which were no way subject to these Metropolitanes It matters not whether wee call them Patriarchs or Primates the Origin of which terms as the amplitude of their office wee owe rather to the following ages whether wee call them Exarchs as the Council of Chalcedon Can. 9. or arch-Arch-Bishops as Iustinian promiscuously or Metropolitans or onely Bishops as this very Nicen Council all is one so long as it effectually appears That by Patriarchs wee understand them to whose both ordination and jurisdiction the Provinces of intire Dioceses were attributed and who had the hearing and judging of all Ecclesiastick causes in the last reference so that according to Iustinian the Emperour yea according to the very Oecumenick Council of Chalcedon from the Patriarchal sentence out of Council was allowed no regular appeal Wee call with the Lawyers those Suburbicary Provinces which were concluded in one Diocese the Law term because of the manifest coextension of both being translated from the Republick to the Church Thirdly Let us grant which yet is undetermined that the Roman Patriarch had obtained an extraordinary or Patriarchal Jurisdiction over all the Provinces of the Italick Diocese as his Suburbicaries and that they were those ten in number viz. the three Islands of Sicilie Corsica and Sardinia and the seven other placed on the Continent Which ten Provinces some do assign to the same Diocese induced by that ancient Observation from which it appears that the Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction of the Dioceses both for the beauty and benefit of order and unity as also to insinuate a mutual harmony which ought as much as may be to be cherished between the Church and Republick in a certain accurate imitation was so coextended with and adjusted to the temporal Regiment of the secular Vicars that the Ecclesiastick Patriarchates or Primacies were not enlarged farther than the temporal Jurisdiction of the Vicars that is to the limits of those Dioceses the Cities whereof in which resided the Vicars were Metropolies where was fixed the Praetory it self which was the highest Tribunal of all causes and all appeals likewise in the Provinces subject thereunto The very same government of the Church was retained for the conservation of Ecclesiastick Unity unto which was had special regard by that singular and excellent subordination of the lesser Clerks to their Bishops in every City of the Bishops unto their Metropolitanes in every Province and of the Metropolitanes to their Patriarchs in every Diocese But in case either of Heresie or Schism the Church was succoured by Councils either Provincial which were rightly called by the Metropolitane or Patriarchal which by the Patriarch or lastly general which by the Emperour himself Now as this premised general coextension of the Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction with the Civil Government appears by comparing the second Canon of the Constantinopolitan Council with the very Code of the Provinces so that particular definition of the Italick Diocese may bee fetcht out of Ruffinus the best Interpreter of that very sixth Nicene Canon who expresly mentions the Suburbicaries in that place where he professedly interprets the said Canon who being both an Italian and near the age of the Nicene Council was able clearly to distinguish the proper limits as then fixed of the Italick Patriarchate Howsoever it is evident to any man that even in this sense from the Jurisdiction of all those ten Italick Provinces as Penitus loto divisos orbe Britannos From the whole world the Britains were divided To the fourth viz. That in the time of the Nicene Council the Britannick Diocese was subject neither to the Roman Patriarchate as some of yesterday grosly suppose nor yet to any forein Jurisdiction shall presently appear when wee shall shew That the Britannick Churches enjoyed their own Primate or Patriarch That being all matter of fact is to be fetched out of the Britannick history it self which is written by Venerable Bede the chief Historiographer of the said Britain and a Catholick Priest too In him therefore wee may read the huge difference of the Britannick Church howsoever most Catholick in other things from that I say not with the same Bede contrariety to the Roman Church both in the different observation of Easter wherein the Britains following the use of Anatolius the Constantinopolitane Patriarch and not that of the Bishop of Rome conformed themselves to the Eastern not Western Churches as also in the different administration of holy Baptism and in many other things witness Augustin himself who

matter of fact whereto the Roman Bishop himself that I may speak the truth as gently as may be was at least accessory and therefore can be no competent Judge of the cause but rather if the business would bear a controversie it were to be presented to a truly Oecumenical or general free Council rightly and legitimately called Now so far is it from that the Britannick Church even refused to present her self or her cause before the Tribunal of such a Council that the Britannick Church rather holds a general Council to be above any Patriarch even the Roman himself according to that pair of Councils held at Basil and Constance This the Britannick holds together with the Gallican Church a renewing of the ancient concord with which Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as conscience permits were even at this time much to be wished it being manifest that above a thousand years since much friendship passed between the Gallican and the Britannick Church even at that time when the Britannick Church did not communicate with the Roman and certainly if both parties would mutually understand one the other without prejudice and that of the two which is in the extream would remit of its rigour that consent of the Britannick Church with the Gallican would not be so improbable as it seems at the first aspect to them that are ignorant of both or either But this onely by the way To our purpose again Wee say the Britannick Church doth so reverence the General Councils that she hath provided by a special Statute That not any one endued with spiritual jurisdiction shall declare or administer his Ecclesiastical censures or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresie but onely such as before had been determined ordered or adjudged to be heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council This was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the very Catholick sense of the Britannick Church and her due esteem of General Councils which the old Parliament openly testified in the solemn Assembly of that whole Kingdome for we disdain to make mention in this place of the Cabals or Conventicles now adayes which reign in the turbulent rebellious State of that Church and Republick for those swarms of Sects are onely the Cancers and Impostemes of that lately famous Church which no more belong to the sacred body of the Britannick Church than a wenn doth to the body natural And truly if heretofore the great Mother of us all the Catholick Church seemed almost universally to be utterly swallowed by a sudden deluge of Arrianism what wonder is it if the Britannick Church but one of her daughters lye under the same fate for a time This for the first point Concerning the second it is to be very much observed That the Britannick Church at the time of her withdrawing was not truly in fact much less by right subject to the Bishop of Rome having been years before her reformation under Edward 6. altogether exempt from the Roman Patriarchate to wit by the Imperial Authority and by that of Prince Henry the eighth whom to have been impowred to do it by right appears before in the first Position But what occasion soever of the withdrawing at that time shall bee pretended it cannot prejudice the Royal Right or any way derogate from the ancient Custome of the Britannick Church Nay the British Nation could not have opposed either of the two without being hainously guilty both of Rebellion and Schism especially since that whole business of the Church's restitution was transacted with the express consent of the Britannick Clergy then Romane a Provincial Council of which alone in defect of a General was at that time the supream meerly Ecclesiastick tribunal of the Britannick Nation whereunto onely the Britannick Church ought to be or indeed could be subject because in that article of time no Council truly general sate As for that of Trent which afterward followed it was at highest onely Patriarchal to which consequently the Britannick Church before exempt by lawful authority from the Romane Patriarchate was no way subject Whereas therefore the Britannick Church can be said to have opposed it self to no lawful Ecclesiastick Authority at all which notwithstanding inseparably is of the essence of Schism certain it is that Church is no way Schismatical but on the contrary side the Britannick Church according to the singular moderation and Christian love she perpetually sheweth toward all Christians as she keeps off from her external Communion no Christian of what ever communion he be so that he hold the foundation intire but unless a most just excommunication put a bar opens her Catholick bosome and draws forth her holy breasts to any genuine Nursling of the Catholick Church so as well in Faith as the internal Communion of Charity as likewise in the external Communion of the Catholick Hierarchy and Liturgy yea and Ceremonies also she yet cherisheth and professeth an undivided peace and consent with the Catholick Church from which the Britannick Church never did nor ever will separate her self as being alwaies most tenacious of the whole truly Catholick foundation For one thing it is on the hinge of which just distinction is the whole state of this great controversie turned one thing I say it is to separate her self from the Catholick or Universal Church and to form to her self a Congregation or Religion apart different from the Catholick Church as in times past the Donatists did another not to communicate in all with some one particular Church as for instance the Latine or rather to abstain from the external worship which is used by some persons in some places under an express Protestation for thence is sprung the modest and innocent title of Protestants under Protestation I say so soon as the occasion of scandal should be taken away of reconciliation and under a vow not so much out of any absolute necessity as for publick peace and Catholick unity's sake of returning to the Communion of that particular Church from which that the Protestants were estranged yea in the latter age violently driven away by thunder and sword and fire is better known out of history than to want any proof or further amplification It appears therefore out of the Premises that the Britannick Church constituted in this as I may say her passive state of separation from the communion of the Bishop of Rome is wholly free from all blemish of Schism by reason that the Bishop of Rome himself first of all interrupted Christian communion with the Britannick Church and yet further inderdicteth the Britannick Church his communion and in that again the Pope extolleth himself above a General Council lawfully called unto which the Britannick Church hath ever attributed the decisive judgement while in his Bull of the Lords Supper he forbids an appeal from himself to a general Council To